The online video platform, which launched in 2004, had been primarily known as the go-to for independent creators looking to sell content directly to consumers. The division of IAC attracted talent with favorable revenue splits and tools that give them the opportunity to set up their own paywalls.

Then, in 2012, High Maintenance came along. The web series, from husband-and-wife team Ben Sinclair and Katja Blichfeld, became a viral hit on Vimeo, with fans gravitating to the story of a Brooklyn pot dealer and his clients.

After seeing its huge success from the get-go, Vimeo decided to do something it hadn't done before: back the project. It was the platform's first foray into original content, joining YouTube, Hulu, Amazon, Netflix and others in the online video market.

Sinclair's pot comedy eventually caught the attention of HBO, which announced in April it will pick up the series. Though the news boosted Vimeo's visibility in the entertainment industry, it also also left the platform without its acclaimed series.

Now Vimeo is hoping its new slate of originals, which begin rolling out Wednesday, will help it differentiate the platform in a crowded marketplace.

The first slate includes the latest season of online hit gay comedy The Outs; a short film from Saturday Night Live cast member Aidy Bryant called “Darby Forever”; and a standup special from comedian and drag queen Bianca Del Rio called Rolodex of Hate.

Del Rio's comedy special is the first of the new Vimeo original programming to launch Wednesday.

"After the success of High Maintenance, the question that everyone asked was, 'So what was the strategy?'" Sam Toles, Vimeo's head of global content and distribution, told Mashable at Vimeo's headquarters in New York. "We realized what’s special about Vimeo is it’s organic, everything comes directly from our community. Authenticity is critically important to us, as well as a true connection to our platform, what we’re doing, our values and seeking to support creators who aren’t necessarily already hugely established."

Vimeo head of global content and distribution Sam Toles at his office in New York City.

Image: Saba Hamedy / Mashable

Del Rio, who won a season of RuPaul's Drag Race, has nearly 200,000 followers on Twitter and almost 500,000 followers on Instagram.

"I thank Vimeo for taking a chance on a clown in a wig," Roy Haylock (known as Del Rio), told Mashable. "I didn’t have many resounding offers [to have a comedy special], but what I like about Vimeo is they are willing to take a risk on someone who is relatively unknown in the real world."

"To get people across the paywall, it really is about the level of engagement with that creator and level of quality that creator’s content brings," Toles said.

Sound familiar? That's because Google-owned video giant YouTube, which launches its originals in January on its subscription service YouTube Red, is also hoping popular creators will bring in subscribers.

At the subscription service's unveiling in October, Robert Kyncl, YouTube's chief business officer, emphasized that digital stars who have risen to fame on the Google-owned platform will help Red compete against Netflix, Hulu and Amazon.

“We realized what we should be doing is we should be amplifying and funding efforts of these incredibly talented people [on YouTube] and just invest into that,” Kyncl said at the news conference. “Just by virtue of that, we have a built-in talent system that we can amplify, which doesn't exist on any other services.”

Some analysts think while Vimeo is a real player in the landscape, it will be tough to attract new audiences for originals.

"Vimeo is sort of more artist-friendly in that they are more hip and indie, almost like the anti-YouTube," Paul Verna, an analyst at EMarketer, told Mashable. "It's an established brand but it strikes me as another site that’s been doing video for a long time. And even though there might be some inherent differences in how YouTube and Vimeo work, it’s basically a similar proposition but it doesn’t necessarily have the audience YouTube has."

Vimeo argues, however, the platform is not like YouTube — nor is it trying to be.

"I always say YouTube is the Walmart of online video platforms and we’re the Bloomingdale's," Toles said. "Walmart is a much bigger store and a much bigger thing but you expect different things when you walk into a Walmart versus a Bloomingdale's. Vimeo was the place where creators felt comfortable sharing high quality content, Youtube became cats and pianos and the vlogger world ... Not to say that’s bad; that’s just different."

Vimeo, led by AOL alum Kerry Trainor, boasts 650,000 creators with paid subscriptions to the platform. The platform averages a monthly audience of over 150 million viewers worldwide

The New York-based company, which has around 200 employees, sees itself as a platform for creators who want to do something more "off the beaten path" but still high-quality.

Inside Vimeo's New York City headquarters.

Image: Saba Hamedy / Mashable

Such "high quality" often means dishing out more dollars. Vimeo is financing its three new originals for around the same amount as High Maintenance.

“The budgets are not necessarily set by how much revenue we expect them to make,” Trainor told Variety earlier this year. “It’s not about taking our $10-plus million annual content investment head-to-head with Netflix’s $6 billion — we are targeting different creators and a much different product.”

The six-episode Season 2 of Adam Goldman's The Outs, for example, reportedly had a budget in “mid-six-figures." The show, which follows a group of young gay men and their friends, takes places three years after the first season left off.

"If there’s any secret sauce to what Vimeo is doing," Toles said, "it’s empowering creators to create content they are passionate about."

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